I know that Daiei is one of the major supermarket chains in Japan. There was one branch of it near my apartment...a mere ten-minute walk away. The actual supermarket was in the basement but it was huge, fairly comparable to some of the No Frills supermarkets we have here in Toronto, and my Daiei also had a couple of floors above the supermarket for clothes and the usual department store stuff.
Let it be known that it would be grand folly to describe the amazing things that the late legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）did musically in one mere paragraph. He was a pioneer in technopop, helped give a new exciting sound to Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in the early 1980s, provided some of the catchiest and quirkiest melodies to other singers such as Miki Nakatani（中谷美紀）, arranged one of the cutest kid-friendly songs for an aidoru trio, created some fine and comfortable New Age music, and was even responsible for a blippity-bloppity theme for NHK News back in the day.
And yep, he even gave his all for commercials including one for my beloved Daiei where I often got my bento. And I mean, he gave his all.
(Mock conversation between The Professor and Daiei)
Daiei, nervously: So, can you...uh...provide a nice jingle for our supermarket?
Sakamoto, haughtily: I, Ryuichi Sakamoto, do NOT compose tiny insignificant baubles of eighth notes for anything! I compose full breathing songs, sir!
Daiei: Well...uh...how catchy and long can you make this song for our humble company?
Sakamoto: YES!
And thus, "Daiei" was born in 1983. And here I thought his "GT" was cool and upbeat. "Daiei" may be his most foot-stomping and toe-tapping work yet. It's got his 80s synth beats, celebratory Christmas bells, bounce-off-the-wall saxophone, cool background chorus and bang-and-crash percussion. Good golly...how big was that sale for fruits and vegetables? You will never simply walk over to your local grocery ever again.
Anyways, "Daiei" is available on his November 2002 compilation album "Works I - CM".
I have noticed that in Japan artists like RS can have careers that switch between serious "high" art and commercial "low" art to a degree that seems less common in the west.
ReplyDeleteGood point there. I think part of it can be explained through a more heightened sense of whimsy on the part of Japanese singers/musicians. Sakamoto has been willing to come up with the cutesy (though still cool), although for that Warabe song, even he was left initially non-plussed by the request to arrange it.
DeleteThe other thing is that back then no matter how artistically huge or significant a singer or band was, they were still beholden to their corporate masters or probably strongly encouraged by their managers or agents to take on a job creating a silly pop song. Basically, they were as much cogs in the machine as any salesperson in a regular company.